thanks for joining us tonight. anderson cooper 360 starts right now. >> we've got breaking news on two fronts. one of them a major storm front. another massive winter weather monster hammering the midwest and moving east. record snowfall in chicago. thousands of flights canceled or delayed right now. it's the third big storm in weeks. people are getting pretty tired of it. also tonight the death of a world leader who made it his business to sell america's oil then use the profits to make america mad. but first, the storm and alexandra steele in the weather center. chicago we know is getting hammered. what's happening? >> here it is. you can see here's chicago. the worst pretty much over for chicago. we've seen about 6, 7 inches. tonight here's the radar. we're seeing more snow showers around. you can see the pictures from chicago. it certainly was substantial and a record for the day in chicago. tonight we're going to see these

winds at about 30 miles per hour. so blowing and drifting of the snow that fell about 6, 7 inches thus far. breaks the record for the day. most snow chicago's seen, believe it or not, in 2011 on the groundhog day blizzard. a little bit shy for the season, although it's the third snowstorm we've seen thus far, still about four inches below average. >> it's heading to d.c. d.c. has a history of late winter monster storms. >> they do. but this will be -- they only had 1 1/2 inches so far this season. they're 13 inches below this season. it will be the first of the season and before the cherry blossoms come, we'll get a little snow. in 1947, they have 11 1/2 inches. in 1909, they had nine, eight in 1999, so we should get up there, but washington's a really interesting forecast. i'll show you why. here's that area of low

pressure. right now chicago winding down. again snow showers, but the bulk of the accumulations are done. the area of low pressure will move east. then what we're going to see tomorrow is going to kind of transfer its energy, become a coastal low. coastal lows are kind of a different animal. we'll watch it move to the north and east. thursday new york to boston could see maybe a slushy one to two inch, but it's an inland affair. indianapolis maybe eight inches, but here's washington, within about 4 to 8 inches. east to annapolis, 1 to 3 inches, west 12 to 15 there. >> thousands of flights canceled or delayed across the country. the breaking news on the death of a world leader, venezuela's president hugo chavez. he knew how to prehot buttons which may be why the chairman of the house foreign affairs committee said good riddance to

this dictator. president obama was more diplomatic saying the u.s. supports the venezuelan people during this challenging time. he fought a long battle with cancer. adding a star to the flag, changing venezuela's time zone, ordering the nation's coat of arms altered on the suggestion of his then young daughter. beyond those eccentricity, he spent 14 years challenging american influence in latin america and embracing global pariahs like iran. jim clancy on his turbulent years in power. >> reporter: his voice was music, the surging crowd his dance partner. for hugo chavez politics was performance art. the script came easily to chavez. anything that might warrant outrage in washington wasn't a cause for concern but rather the

measure of success. chavez beamed and embraced mahmoud ahmadinejad as the iranian leader toured leftist. knowing that they were aiming to develop the bomb, chavez joked a nearby grassy knoll would open up. they laughed. what chavez really relished was playing on the world stage. >> translator: yesterday the devil came here. and it smells of sulfur still today. >> reporter: standing at the lectern that president george w. bush used the day before hugo chavez sniffed the air and made it personal, accusing the american leader of talking as if he were the owner of the world. when an earthquake rocked haiti, chavez claimed it was the result of u.s. weapons testing, an excuse to send american troops into the country. chavez, of course, had

humanitarian aid programs of his own. when cash-strapped americans were shivering in the winter cold, chavez volunteered venezuelan oil to heat homes in the bronx for free. local politicians and local media turned out, too. chavez was never afraid to wield his oil wealth against his foes or he'd use it to win friends and influence his neighbors. he once rewarded his 3 millionth twitter follower with a new home. she was thrilled. so what if, as his critics say, the other 2,999,000 didn't get a thing. in the end he even suggested his cancer could be the result of an american conspiracy. he quoted fidel castro's warnings to be careful what he ate and watch out for small needles. the images of hugo chavez

rallying the crowds. even his staunchest rivals admit he could have been re-elected again and again. that bombastic rhetoric embraced by his supporters, embraced as the courage to stand up to the power that be. it elevated him, and he knew it. courageous, outrageous, it's what made hugo chavez larger than life. i'm jim clancy. >> he was 58 years old when he died. the funeral is set for friday. the suggestion in jim clancy's report that america somehow caused his cancer was neither the first nor the last touch of suspicion to come from the government. just today officials accused two attaches of the embassy in caracas of encouraging the military to destabilize the country. larry, you actually met chavez, you spoke with him about

president obama and president bush. you asked him about that. i want to play for our viewers some of what he had to say. >> don't you think insults, mr. president, don't harbor peace? >> translator: well, if you talk about insults and name calling, well, if we withdraw the insults on those name calling, then we can have peace? well, we need to do that, but all of us. now how bush called me. the bush government toppled me. they asked for my assassination. they disrespected us. >> i'm wondering, larry, how he struck you. did he believe that? did he seem rational to you? >> christiane and anderson, good to talk to you both. there are a lot of things interesting about the late hugo chavez. first, when he came into a studio, it had been a long day for me. i had taped ahmadinejad in the

morning, then i did chavez and gadhafi all in the same day. they were here for the u.n. he spoke in english to me. we spoke about music. he spoke about his love of baseball. he knew everything about american baseball. he was jovial, hugging. then we started the interview and he had an interpreter. i thought was a little strange why he didn't conversion in english. he was very defensive. he was -- he said that bush tried to assassinate him and he had proof. he had several people confess that they were among the assassins. he said that hillary clinton would be a failure as a secretary of state. this was in 2009. so obama had been in office about seven months at the time. i found him fascinating. it's an appropriate word. if he were an american politician or republican or democrat, he would have been elected.

he had a manner about him that was effusive. you couldn't help like him while despairing of a lot of things he did. i found him terribly interesting. >> christiane, how much did chavez change not only venezuela, but venezuela's relationships with other nations? >> well, i think really a lot. and i think what larry just said, all these people larry interviewed in one day. i like to call it loosely, you know, the axis of friendship that chavez collected around himself. you know, really sort of professionally kicking sand in the eyes of uncle sam as one analyst put to it me. this was part of his international allure, the idea of standing up against the united states. and don't forget while he had so many petrol dollars while the price of oil is so high and he has the highest, the biggest oil reserves in the world, he was able to dispense a lot of largesse and therefore have a lot of friendships based on pet petrol diplomacy. inside his country, he was the

populist leader, the man who appealed to the poor, the downtrodden. you can see on the streets there's a lot of outpouring of grief for him. obviously in his later years there were the institutions, the supreme court, all sorts of institutions were compromised by him. but in the last election, he won 55%. his opponent won 44%. and it was the closest the opposition have come to him. i think that's where people are going to be look. is his death a game changer for the future? >> it's interesting him speaking in spanish during the interview. i wonder how much was because he wanted the interview to be understood by people in venezuela more than he was interested in it being understood by people in the united states. for him, the target audience was really the people back home? >> i think that's a good point. another thing unusual about him, christiane and anderson, if you find this interesting, a lot of the leftist leaders are anti-religious, but he professed to bee an observant catholic,

totally believed in jesus christ and was observant. >> christianchristiane, you don that, as larry said, from some of the other leaders certainly castro. >> you don't. i mean, the pictures of him with larry and him elsewhere, hugo chavez is carrying a crucifix and fingering it like worry beads. i'm not sure how much that played into his cult appeal. but the people of venezuela are very religious. perhaps there was a real sort of connection there. no matter how much he was a pain in the neck to the united states and to other countries, he also, as i said, had this cult following, had this sort of populist leadership that played on a lot of the needs and desires of people in his own country. even you're going to hear, no doubt you're going to report on some of the praise that's come from the united states, some certain congresspeople who have talked about how he put his oil at the disposal of the poor and

dispossessed not just at home but in the u.s. and elsewhere. he was somebody who knew how to play the crowd and was 15 years president of venezuela and was this cult, and now can his chosen success are carry that on? most people don't think that he will have that authority, that cult, that -- you know, that sort of charisma, if you like, to be able to maintain chavezmo at the level that hugo chavez did. >> let us know what you think of the death of chavez. follow me on twitter right now at anderson cooper. just ahead, who smeared the senator? he's accused of partying with prostitutes but now the story's falling apart. the question is who cooked it up in the first place? late word on where suspicion is pointing. also a report that may make you question everything you thought you knew about the blade runner. the side of oscar pistorius that's been hidden from the public largely. what drew griffin uncovered while he was in south africa. [ male announcer ] every day, thousands of people are choosing advil® for their headaches.

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keeping them honest tonight. the growing anatomy that appears to be a smear. new words about who might have been trying to set up a powerful democratic senator. if true, gets us closer to who cooked up this story that senator robert menendez had been using prostitutes and shortchanging them to boot. the accusation were made on tape done by the daily caller. they ran it and the story extensively in the days running up to the election. as we reported a woman claiming to be one of those escorts has come forward with a sworn statement that she doesn't even know menendez and was paid to make the allegations against him. even before she did, everyone try and failed to verify the escorts' taped claims. they have never even broadcast those interviews. tonight abc's reporting that republican operators -- again republican operators set the whole thing up.

more from dana bash. the senator seemed pretty eager to talk to cnn today. what did he have to say about the latest developments. >> he clearly feels vindicated. he was eager to effectively say i told you so. listen to what he said. >> i don't know more than what i've read. but i do know that from the very beginning i said that nameless, faceless, anonymous sources from right wing blogs took this story which were just false smears right before an election cycle, attempted to do it then, and ultimately drove into it the mainstream press. but they were never anything other than false smears. >> now, the senator makes the point that all this exploded right before the election. do you have a sense that this was a political hit job? >> you know, there are a lot of theories. one is that. in fact, i talked to a republican operative, anderson,

tonight who was involved in trying to defeat democrats in the senate who admitted that they were working very hard to try to dig things up on senator menendez. politics as usual. both sides do it. but you mention that abc news admitted in a report that it was republican political operatives who hooked them up with interviews with these women. one theory that menendez sources i've been talking to have it wasn't republican operatives hired for partisan reasons but perhaps hired by a client who was focused on his bottom line and the almighty dollar. and the reason is because another allegation that's out there against senator menendez is that he's been trying to help his friend and donor get a dormant contract for port security up and running in the dominican republic. somebody who stood to lose money from that was trying to take senator menendez down. >> that port theory might dovetail with questions of influence peddling by menendez, right? >> that's something we should keep in mind here. the most salacious part of this

may be subsiding, that he was with prostitutes in the dominican republic, but the fbi and the senate ethics committee is still investigating that he was influence peddling and trying to help this friend of his, a big donor, trying to help him not only with this port security contract, which could have -- could give dr. melgen lots of money and also perhaps help him get through some allegations of health care fraud and other thins. so those are definitely still on the table and plagueing him. >> what about the daily caller? are they standing by their story? >> they absolutely are standing by their story. they allege that the woman who gave an affidavit in the dominican republic saying that she was actually paid to lie is not the woman they interviewed.

it's hard for anyone to know what's true because if you look at the website the daily caller put up with the woman, her face is blotted out. they can't come up with proof that she was or wasn't the woman, so they're asking us to take them at their word as well. they're absolutely standing by their story. just ahead a record day on wall street. stocks hitting a new high. what this means for your 401(k). and later the surprising changes in airline security that the tsa unveiled today. you still have to take off your shoes but a flight attendant's union is calling these changes dangerous. s union is calling these changes dangerous. ' union is calling these changes dangerous.

looks like as soon as tomorrow we could hear the questions the jury has for jodi arias in her murder trial. details on that when we continue. at the long term health benefits of taking multivitamins. hey used centr silver f t study... so i guess my wife was right. male anner ] centrum. ways your mostomplet

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it's a new high. broke through levels last seen in 2007, 5 1/2 years ago. you may remember the economy was on the verge of a tailspin. today the gains in the dow come on a different economic picture. what does it mean for everybody, including 401(k)s. ali velshi joins me now. one ceo said this may be the biggest bull market of his career. >> it's been huge. the market hate low on march 9, 2009 when we were in the midst of losing hundreds of thousands of jobs a month. back then people didn't feel like investing. average investors didn't feel like investing, but that was the low. we were on tv together when that was going on. to prosper in this country, one of three things needs to happen. you need to have your investments increasing in value, your home increasing in value or your wage increasing. we haven't seen wage increases at the rate we've needed to. homes are coming back. that's a long-term investment. you have to have credit and capital to put into it. the stock market is what one expert called tina, there's no

other alternative. the only place money can go. if you're trying to grow your money, banks don't give you any interest, bond funds aren't working. because of the low interest rates because of the fed has been pushed into the stock market, and that started happening since the feds started propping up the economy. >> for people's 401(k), what does this mean? >> if you're invested, this is good. there are some stocks that you have held that have gained. you want to be careful. you don't want to pile in at the top of the market. you want to be in the market. if you need to make money off your money, you've got to be invested. more than half of the revenues on the dow or the s&p 500 are derived from overseas. there are other economies doing well. make sure you're well diversified. some think this market has yet to run. >> this could go on for a while? >> this could go on for a while. the market looks ahead many months. unemployment numbers look

backward. there are a lot of reasons other than the government stepping in to trip the economy -- >> even though all these problems in washington with the sequester. >> despite the problems in washington, this continues to happen. it is factored in. isha is here with a 360 news bulletin. >> ron paul, eric holder stopped short of absolutely ruling out a drone strike against an american citizen on u.s. soil. he also said it had never been done and the obama administration had no plans of orders such a strike. the issue came up during the senate's consideration on john brennan to lead the cia. the tsa is easing some rules and the flight attendants union is calling the changes dangerous. passengers will be allowed to carry small pocket knives and some sports equipment on to planes for the first time in more than a decade. only knives with blades less than six centimeters will be allowed, razor blades and box

cutters are still banned. anderson lamborghini is marking its anniversary with its fastest model ever. it costs a cool $3.9 million. >> yikes. >> only three are being made. the company telling us that two of the buyers live here in the united states. so i put it to you, anderson hayes cooper, are you one? >> please, are you kidding me? that seems moronic. who would spend $3 million for a car? that's crazy. >> you'll be on your bike? >> i'm fine on my bicycle. in new york city travel i'll beat that lamborghini on a bicycle. >> cycle on. >> still ahead, jodi arias on the stand trying to explain how one gunshot, 29 knife wounds and one cut throat somehow added up to self-defense. tomorrow the jurors' turn to ask questions. we'll talk to jeff toobin, mark geragos and nancy grace about the trial. also the dark side of a hero.

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crime and punishment tonight. jodi arias has been on the stand in arizona for weeks talking about her relationship with travis alexander and the day that she killed him back in 2008. now the jury's turn to ask questions. the judge has received 100 questions from the jurors which the lawyers will review tomorrow. arias was back on the stand today trying to make the case she killed in self-defense. randi kaye reports. a warning, some of the testimony

is graphic. >> reporter: if you believe what jodi arias says on the stand, travis alexander told her marrying her would be like winning the wife lottery. >> had he ever proposed to you? >> yeah, he did over the phone once. >> reporter: so if their relationship was so good that even marriage was being discussed, how on earth did it get this bad? again today arias' defense team tried to prove it was all self-defense. she shared this story of past abuse, of alexander choking her. >> at first i thought of clawing at his face, but then i couldn't -- i couldn't do that. it didn't feel right to gouge his eyes out or something. >> reporter: arias told the court she would have sex with alexander because it stopped his anger from escalating. she says she even tried that on the very day she killed him. >> when he grabbed your arm and bent you over the desk on june 4th, 2008, how did you view

that? >> it was a way for him to relieve his anger. >> reporter: citing examples like alexander tying arias to the bed with rope, the defense tried to show alexander controlled her and when he wanted sex, he took it. >> would it be fair to say that he had an all-access pass to your body? >> yes. >> reporter: and what about arias' failing memory the day alexander died? she has testified that she shot alexander first and doesn't remember anything after that. here in court her defense lawyer tried to raise even the slightest doubt that it was arias who stabbed alexander nearly 30 times and sliced his throat so deep his head was nearly cut off. >> do you have any memory of slashing mr. alexander's throat? >> no. >> when you were asked on cross-examination if you did that, do you recall telling us that you did? >> yes.

>> was that a recollection or a logical assumption on your part? >> it was definitely not a recollection. >> reporter: what might have been arias' motive? was she perhaps driven to kill after finding out alexander had been seeing another woman? >> i certainly wasn't thrilled, no, i was devastated when i discovered that he wasn't being faithful to me. >> reporter: the defense was quick to point out arias knew alexander was cheating for some time and still kept having sex with him. an attempt to show arias didn't just snap on the day of the killing. >> this is something you had a longstanding knowledge of before june 4th of 2008, isn't that correct? >> yes. >> reporter: for the first time arias told the jury she wishes she could turn back the clock and make some different decisions regarding alexander. she said she thought he needed help especially after she says she found him masturbating to a picture of a young boy.

>> it was a startling event, was it not? >> yeah, it was very shocking. >> reporter: the prosecutor cast doubt on this claim by questioning arias about why she didn't share such a shocking event in her journal. >> also, a highly negative event and it was a negative experience for me. not something that i wished to remember north nor did she want to remember the day alexander died. >> the events of june 4th, 2008, do you want to remember those? >> there's a part of me that doesn't ever want to remember it. i feel like i'm the person who deserves to sit with those memories. >> randi kaye joins me now live from phoenix. just before the close of court today arias made a big statement. how did the jurors react? what did she say? >> it happened at the end of

testimony. jodi arias was crying on the witness stand, trying to explain to the court why he felt she had no other choice but to kill travis alexander that day. and here's what she said in this statement. she said, it should have been her. she said that maybe she did have a choice, which is something we certainly haven't heard before. she's always said it was self-defense and she had no other choice. then she also added it's not okay to kill someone under any circumstances. so certainly she's had some time to think about this all these year in jail. of course you would think that the jury might have been moved. juror number one, anderson, who sits closest to jodi arias at the witness stand let out this giant yawn during this very emotional moment. certainly not the reaction that the defense team was looking for. >> yeah, and that's the question. are jurors just tired of being on the stand listening to this for days and days? joining us jeffrey toobin, nancy grace and mark geragos, co-author of the upcoming book "mistrial."

nancy, for you, what was the headline out of today's testimony? clearly seemed like defense was trying to convince the jury that alexander's alleged abuse pushed her to kill in self-defense. was that the headline for you? >> i would say that that would be the headline for the defense, but what stunned me is that the defense chose to go back into arias buying multiple gas cans and filling them up with gas. i don't know if you do that on a long trip, anderson, but clearly so she wouldn't be detected traveling to alexander's home where she mured him. >> what was especially bizarre about today's testimony, is she had an explanation for why she bought gas, which was it was cheaper, so she thought she would buy gas and put it in canisters and take it with her. now, i don't care how much you're economizing. i've never heard of anyone buying gas and putting it in cans.

i just thought if you're going to try to lessen the hurt, at least come up with a somewhat believable explanation instead of making the problem worse, which is what i thought they did today. >> what explanation would that be? i want to burn the body? i want to burn the evidence? what other explanation is there for carrying gas cans in your trunk? >> i've never seen a defendant testify for anywhere near this long particularly in a case that's -- i mean, it's not that complicated. >> i've tried 30 murder trial that have taken less time than this case than she's been on the stand. >> now, as mark has suggested in previous days, maybe the jury, having been exposed to her for so long, is starting to feel some sympathy for her as a human being and thus will not vote to execute her. that has to be the defense strategy. >> toobin, toobin, i hardly believe close-up shots of her behind is endearing her to this jury. the longer she's up there, the more they keep showing it,

please. i'm numb from those shots. >> don't you think that after -- or taking this thing through friday, if that was the strategy, you had accomplished it inspect why go into the final week? at a certain point some of those jurors are saying enough is enough. >> she also said today that basically any time anyone yelled at her, it affects her memory. i mean, it seems like an awfully convenient excuse. >> there's a caveat to that, anderson. there's a caveat. now, she had that problem up until she was 14, she says, when she lived at home. then for all of those years between 14 till the time she met travis alexander, she didn't have a memory problem. now it's reoccurring on cross-examination. >> they were also sort of alleging this child porn or child -- interest in child sex against travis alexander. i mean, are they just trying to kind of smear him as much as possible? >> they're trying to smear the victim as if he somehow brought

this on himself. the defense here, to the extent there is a defense, is self-defense. the idea that he's this horrible aggressive person is crucial to the defense. what the defense mostly has brought out is that this was an enthusiastically consensual sexual relationship. yet another reason i don't understand why she's been on the stand so long. >> you certainly know how to put perfume on the pig, jeff. enthusiastic sexual relationship that's not how i would describe it, but go ahead. what she said, if you look at the testimony carefully, she happened to walk in. she knows he's in the next room. he had laid out on his bed all these photos of scantily clad little boys and he was masturbating to them. now, in this day and age, the police came, they found not a single image on his desktop, his laptop, his cell phone. he didn't even visit one of those websites about child porn. who has downloaded hard copy images of naked or near-naked boys and they're not on your

computer? >> they knew going into it what the evidence is. they know they'll come back and say there's nothing downloaded. she can't go and say he had it downloaded, he was watching on an ipad or computer. >> you were saying the allegations of abuse are just the way in the door. >> right. >> explain that. >> this is all just a vehicle. jeff says to the extent that they're -- >> a setup for the expert. >> this is the way you have to lay a foundation to get into the expert testimony. you have to lay a foundation. >> whether it's true or not. >> you have to get to mitigation. well, it's the same -- we'll say the same thing, the prosecution does the same thing. what she's doing and her legal team is doing is they're saying, okay, it's abuse. that allows me to get into all this other stuff, which jeff will characterize as a smear and that they're hoping will resonate with a juror or jurors in terms of getting them to say, yeah, i understand it. i had a bad boyfriend like that. >> you made that sound so good,

geragos. you made that sound like something that you'd actually want to do, lie to a jury to get an expert based on her allegations and there's nothing to prove anything she said. >> remember, all you've got to do -- it isn't lying to a jury. the same thing that prosecutors do all the time when they make allegations. >> mark, mark, that's not right. >> quit talking about prosecutors. you're talking about this case. >> defense lawyers have a legal -- it's more legally permissible to sort of be inventive with the facts. prosecutors can't just decide to make up allegations to get an expert witness in. >> defense lawyers have the duty to zealously defend their client. >> mark geragos, jeff toobin, nancy grace, thank you so much. you can watch continuing coverage of the jodi arias trial tomorrow all day on hln. like today, it should be riveting stuff. coming up a side of the

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crime and punishment tonight, oscar pistorius has been keeping a low profile since released on bail eight days after killing his girlfriend reeva steenkamp. pistorius wept as his lawyers read his account of that deadly

night. pistorius said he thought that his girlfriend was an intruder when he fired into his bathroom. throughout the hearing prosecutors said the story didn't add up. they claim he had a history of violence and killed his girlfriend after an argument. drew griffin has been in south africa looking into those claims that pistorius has a darker side. ha he found is very much at odds with the blade runner's public image. >> reporter: since he's been charged with premeditated murder some who say they knew this once beloved south african sports star are now willing to tell another side of oscar pistorius. >> it's like we're waiting for something like this to happen. >> reporter: mark bachelor, a south african soccer player, who socialized with pistorius says he never bought the idyllic image being portrayed in the media. >> he would have a trip switch. and he'd get violent and angry and he'd fight with people and cause a lot of problems. and i mean that's -- the

incident with me and him was because he was drunk at a party and he started shouting, swearing on the phone. >> reporter: he describes that incident as beginning when pistorius thought a girlfriend was cheating on him. despite bachelor's size, pistorius wanted a fight. >> he said he's not scared. if i want him to come down there, blah, blah. but i left it, you know. >> reporter: one thing many don't know is that pistorius was armed nearly everywhere he went. he even applied to become a licensed gun collector so he could buy more than the four guns allowed by south african law. just last january, though the facts are in dispute, friend and boxer said pistorius was holding a gun at this outdoor cafe when it went off. he says pistorius was showing the gun to a friend. >> that was a major mistake what happened on oscar's part. it wasn't intentional. that could have been a bad event

and something that could have been very tragic. we were all very fortunate that day. after that event oscar was very apologetic. >> reporter: there are no police reports. cnn could get no comment from the restaurant. when questions were asked in the papers an unidentified pistorius friend said it was he who brought the gun to the restaurant, not pistorius. south african media has always adored pistorius, some would say even protected him, by minimizing his problems. >> he was one of the biggest stories at the olympic games. >> reporter: he's one of the few south african sports journalists who has been critical of pistorius. he said the pr machine behind the so-called blade runner has all but made him untouchable. >> on record there really isn't a problem. >> that's the thing. so many incidents that have happened, well documented, over the last five or six years with oscar pistorius, and these kind of cases have disappeared. >> reporter: take the blade runner's 2009 boating accident.

oscar pistorius himself says he was nearly killed when the speed boat he was driving hit a submerged object. it happened february 21tst. but at the time doctors downplayed the injuries as minor. three day later they found alcohol bottles inside the submerged boat. a police spokesperson was quoted, we are investigating the possibility that the consumption of alcohol had played a role in the boating accident. but the very next day there was an about face. the same police spokesperson said she was misquoted and even said police could not confirm pistorius was even the driver. his manager strongly condemned the report saying that's the problem with south african media. they don't get their facts straight and they love to speculate. police eventually dropped their negligent driving charge against pistorius. on valentine's day morning, when

he heard the news of reeva steenkamp's shooting, he knew it was coming. >> probably more shocked me, but didn't surprise me, mainly because of what has transpired over the years. i saw something developing. some of the things i didn't know about him, the guns, arms ammunition, it's something i didn't know. but it all pieces together that here you had a troubled athlete. not so much -- you had this incredible role model to the rest of the world, no question about that. but deep down this was a troubled athlete. >> reporter: a troubled athlete perhaps but even friends who criticize pistorius' actions defend him. >> he's a good guy who could have fun with his mates. never was he reckless and never in my company aggressive towards anyone. >> reporter: pistorius facing charges of premeditated murder is not in jail. he's awaiting his trial here at his uncle's multimillion dollar mansion. and we've learned there's more. even the terms of his release seem to have changed since oscar pistorius got out of that jail

cell. he now lives here. and though he was supposed to visit the police twice a week, the authorities now will visit him here and only occasionally. cnn has repeatedly asked the pistorius family and his lawyers for comment. we are told there will be no more. his next court appearance is not scheduled until june. >> drew griffin joins me now. this picture of pistorius that you painted is definitely much different than the one presented since the last olympics. does it seem like any of this will come out at the trial? >> it seems logical that it would, anderson, but i must tell you police are absolutely mum on any part of their investigation. but i can imagine they are going to try, if they believe that oscar pistorius is indeed guilty of premeditated murder, to also look in his past relationships, to see if there were anger issues, any kind of domestic abuse in his past and really reach out to the same women in this country that we've been trying to find who also,

anderson, are remaining very quiet on their relationships with oscar pistorius. >> a fascinating case. drew, thanks. drew also talked to reeva steenkamp's family for the first time since pistorius was released. what they told drew is pretty stunning. listen. >> i would like to be face-to-face with him and forgive him, forgive him what he's done. and that way i can find what's probably more peace with the situation. >> and you would forgive him, mike, whether this was a tragic accident or whether this was murder? >> whatever the outcome, i feel with my belief and if christ could forgive when he died on the cross, why can't i? who am i not to forgive him? >> that's not all.

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